


The One That Got Away

by yamlord



Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game), The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28611675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yamlord/pseuds/yamlord
Summary: West Virginia has always been a weird place, and Kepler is the source. When Mae and her friends take a vacation to Amnesty lodge they discover a harrowing connection to their own past, and worse, her own abilities begin to develop unpredictably. They are going to need help if they want to survive. Luckily, they're in the right place. (This is post-canon for both NITW and Amnesty)
Relationships: Angus Delaney/Greggory Lee, Dani/Aubrey Little, Mae Borowski/Bea Santello, Minerva/Duck Newton
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. Snow Day

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is in progress but I wanted to post what I initially had to get my foot in the door.

The first thing that Mae noticed about Amnesty lodge was the number of people in the lobby. It was the season to stay at a lodge, but this lodge was the cheapest listed online. She expected this to be nothing more than a place to sleep at night while visiting Kepler, which would mostly entail skiing and checking out the famous Cryptid museum. The scene before her, though, made her more interested in the lodge. A tall bear in a red flannel was visible in the kitchen, working on an enormous pot of soup. A youthful looking deer was playing the piano, masterfully. A pigeon in a park ranger outfit was sitting on a couch leaning against a tall dark coated lionness who had bright blue tattoos instead of hair. A white seal, a yellow rabbit, and a crocodile with red crest scales were playing uno in front of a fire place. Everyone looked wildly happy.  
"Mae, stop staring at everybody," a whisper hit her ear from the right, Bea took her paw and started guiding her towards the stairs, " we have to go and put our stuff in the room before we go meet Angus and Gregg."  
"OK" Mae followed her crocodile friend up the stairs carrying the heavy, poorly packed suitcase, each step up was accompanied with a heavy thud. Now on the top floor of the lodge they met a powerful looking Pitbull who opened the room that Mae and Bea would share for the next week. "Ah, you two must Beatrice and Margaret, I hope you'll enjoy your stay here at Amnesty Lodge."  
"I assume you're the owner?"  
"Yep, My name is Madeline Cobb, but y'all can call me Mama"

Mae and Bea threw their stuff into the room, and closed the door. " Our friends said that they would meet us at the wolf-ember lodge, could you show us how to find it?" Bea asked.   
"Well, I'm a little busy at the moment, but Jake Coolice downstairs would be more than happy to take you down there."   
"The seal?" Mae thought it would be a wildly funny name for a seal to have. "Yes, the seal. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to." Mama walked down the hall and entered a large room at the corner of the building. Through the door Mae could see a whiteboard with a picture of something that looked like Stonehenge affixed to it. "Huh, I wonder if they are going to do a Stonehenge themed event here or something." Mae thought about the possibility of shamanistic rituals at ski lodge for a moment before continuing after Bea down the stairs.

Bea lead them both towards the group of young animals by the fire. "UNO! also, eat shit Jake" the excitable looking crocodile threw her card down dramatically on the pile. Mae thought that she looked like an alternate version of Bea, like an echo fighter in smash brothers. "You are going down for that, Aubrey" the seal drew 4 from the pile angrily, his hand now so full he could barely hold it. The rabbit played a 7 and looked up sheepishly at her friend, "Thank you, Dani," Aubrey flicked her final card onto the 7 with a flourish and declared "the Lady Flame wins again!"   
"Hey, uh... Jake...Coolice?" The seal turned to look at the nervous sounding cat. "You found him, what can I help you with" " well, the owner-lady said that you could help us find the... ember wolf?"  
"You mean the Wolf-ember?" "That one" "Yeah, we go there all the time," he gestured to the women beside him, "although Aubrey's skiing skills might say otherwise."  
The red crocodile blushed, and Bea could swear that her ruby necklace seemed to shine with a light all its own when she did. "You guys looking for some friends to ski with?" The yellow rabbit, Dani, asked.   
Bea answered "We are going to meet some friends who are staying there but I guess skiing isn't a limited activity," Mae looked excited to make new friends, softening Bea's opinion on the matter, "You know what, sure, let's hit the slopes."  
The five of them were leaving the lodge together when the pigeon in the park ranger outfit called out, "Aubrey, just a sec"   
"Sure, Duck." She approached him and he whispered in her ear briefly with a serious look, before patting her on the shoulder and sending her on way.  
Dani asked her girlfriend " what's up with duck, Aubrey?" "oh, he just wanted to tell me about a weird dream he had last night."  
"Was it a bad one?" "Apparently."   
"What are you guys whispering about," Mae looked like she was resisting the urge to eavesdrop, so Bea interceded for her.   
"Nothing, just talking about bad dreams." Mae wasn't entirely satisfied with the answer, but Bea was eager to see their friends.   
The group was mostly silent during the brief walk to the Wolf-ember lodge. When they did arrive, Mae and Gregg locked eyes in the window of the dining area, and Gregg leapt from his seat and ran to meet them at the door.  
"MAE!!!" He gesticulated wildly in his usual fashion.  
"GREGG!!" she mirrored his enthusiasm and movements. Mae narrowed her eyes and decided to start their favorite greeting, "Too bad you didn't get killed by a mugger"  
"Too bad you didn't fall into a sinkhole.  
"Too bad you didn't get eaten by a homeless guy who was high on bath-salts"  
"God I've missed you"   
"Me too." They met in a tight hug, while Angus and Bea stood to the side and made their own greetings. Aubrey decided to take the initiative and ask" I take it you guys are the friends that Mae and Bea were going to meet?"  
"Yep," the fox turned to the new arrivals, and then added" I'm Gregg, the big cutie is Angus, I guess you guys met Mae and Bea at the other lodge."  
"It's like the coolest lodge I've ever seen," Mae exclaimed,"it felt like we had just walked into a ski lodge themed movie."  
"Yeah, Mama and Barclay do their best to keep us all real comfy."  
"Barclay? Was that the chef dude?" Mae asked.  
"Yeah," Jake Coolice was getting impatient to hit the slopes while there was still light out, "You guys ready to ski?" Gregg and Mae scurried out the door to the lift, while Bea decided to stay with Angus indoors and have some of the apparently famous french onion soup.

When the ski lift reached the top, Gregg, Mae, Aubrey, Dani, and Jake gathered near the blue square slope, and prepared to make their descent. Jake Coolice remembered aubrey's first time and wanted to make sure his new friends didn't meet a similar fate. "So, you guys familiar with skiing? Your pizza and french fries and all that?"   
"Of course," Gregg supplied, " my family used to ski a lot when I was a kid, so I have some experience."   
"How about you, Mae?"  
"Loads of experience," Mae lied," although that mostly when I was a kid too."  
Jake squinted at her, and decided to follow behind her to make sure she didn't die while descending. "Everyone ready?"  
The collective affirmation signaled Dani to set off on the slope, with Aubrey following close behind. Gregg was next, but Mae looked a little queasy at the dizzying heights.  
"You can do this Mae, just stay calm and think about pizza and french fries." Jake reassured her. Mae set off unsteadily but quickly built speed and seemed to find her footing. Jake joined next and kept pace behind Mae.  
Once Mae got into the swing of things, she really felt the thrill. The same thrill she felt when she was standing balanced on a telephone wire. The same thrill she felt when she was standing up to a dark god. What. no sshe didn't enjoy that, it was scary. oh god she was scared.  
The panic hit her like a tree branch to the face. or maybe that was a tree branch to the face. Now she was cold and her face was hot and she saw a white face and red... Then she couldn't see at all.


	2. This again?

When Mae opened her eyes again she was standing upright. The first thing her eyes locked on was the stone walls surrounding her, she turned and saw an ensconced torch on the wall, and despite the fire being clearly visible to her it did not emanate light or heat. In fact, she couldn't feel anything. Panic now set in as she tried to feel her own body, slapping at herself with her hands and looking down at herself, she noticed the only source of light around was her. The ethereal blue light from the dreams she had during the cult incident 3 years prior filled her vision. She tried to stay calm and figure out the puzzle of this dream. She remembered the music that haunted the others, and set out searching the castle trying assemble her phantasmal band.  
After ten minutes of wandering she came what appeared to be a throne room. Tall pillars with symbols in a language she didn't know adorning them and podiums atop them beckoned her forward into the room. This dream was turning out to be a lot more interesting than her previous ones. Exploring a castle was more fun than climbing on trains and old villages, after all. As Mae rounded a corner behind the central podium, she began to hear distant voices. Drawn deeper into the chamber behind the podium, the voices grew louder. "..brey hasn't been doing enough to help Sylvain lately, you're her teacher, you have to get her to come back and help us!" "I can't just snap my fingers and make her come! Besides, it's just one creature, our can handle it, right, Alexandra?" "Theoretically, yes, but aubrey is supposed to protect us, the fact this abomination is here...at...all... Who are you?" Mae realized that the conversation had been between two female animals, one a young looking rabbit, but with horns, and the other a difficult to define bird? reptile? in a mask. "Who Are You?" The young Jackalope turned and locked eyes on Mae, like she was seeing her clearly. Mae didn't know how to react. "Alexandra, who are you talking to? Is someone there?" The tall masked creature, looked in mae's direction and focused. The mask seemed to shine from within before she too focused on Mae. "How did you get in here? Guards!"  
MAe attempted to speak but found that just like before she couldn't make noise in this form. She attempted to explain herself, at least, but was unsure if they could understand. "You're from Earth aren't you?" Alexandra inquired, then continued, " Are you a part of the pine guard? Have you come to warn me about something?" Mae shook her head, she didn't know about any tree militias.  
"Then why are you here?" Mae shrugged and attempted to say,"I just passed out from an injury, and I am pretty sure I am dreaming." Alexandra replied as though she could hear her. "An injury did this to you? Were you attacked by a monster?" Mae was shocked by being heard, and made a decision. "Well, I wasn't attacked by one recently, but, a few years ago, my friends and I narrowly escaped a black goat in a pit that tried to get people to feed it."   
"A Black Goat?"  
"We never actually saw it's body, but when it sang to me I just kind of 'knew' its name. We trapped it with a cave in, but we couldn't actually hurt it."  
"It sang to you? That sounds familiar. You need to talk to the woman your people call mama about this."  
"Mama? As in the owner of amnesty lodge?"  
"Exactly."  
The guards arrived at that moment. 4 tall men in powerful looking armor all with glowing eyes surrounded Mae and moved to separate her from the girl. When they touched her, her body flickered and then vanished with a pop.

Bea gasped when Mae's eyes finally opened again. The entire lobby of amnesty lodge breathed a sigh of relief as the injured girl sat straight up. "What was that place?" Mae looked around the room before locking eyes on Aubrey. " They talked about you specifically, one of them said she was your teacher!" The local crowd looked around uneasily. Bea grabbed Mae's shoulder, "Calm down, Maedae, you're OK. Just relax."  
Aubrey approached and put her hand on Mae's shoulder and said, "Come upstairs to mama's office and I will answer all your questions."


End file.
